Regression Models

Multiple regression is a statistical technique for estimating relationships between variables that has become a key tool in mathematical economics (econometrics) and in the social sciences. By these routes it has invaded the law. The principal applications have been in antidiscrimination class action litigation, but the technique has also been applied in a variety of other legal contexts—antitrust price-fixing, securities market manipulation, litigation over capital punishment, attacks on bail, and others. It is now so easy to fit models to data by computer that multiple regression and related techniques are likely to become even more widely used—and probably also abused—in cases involving statistical proof.